_Hooks and lines._--The streams and lakes in the immediate
neighborhood of Point Barrow contain no fish, and there is
comparatively little fishing in the sea. When the water first closes
in the autumn narrow tide cracks often form at the very edge of the
beach. At these cracks the natives frequently catch considerable
numbers of Polar cod (Boreogadus saida) and small sculpins (Cottus
quadricornis and C. decastrensis), with the hook and line. The tackle
for this fishing consists of a short line of whalebone, provided with
a little “squid” or artificial bait of ivory, and fastened to a wooden
rod about 18 inches or 2 feet long. The lure, which is apparently
meant to represent a small shrimp, is kept moving, and the fish bite
at it. We brought home two complete sets of tackle for this kind of
fishing, two lines without rods and twelve lures or hooks. No. 89548
[1733] Fig. 264, has been selected for description.
The line is 40 inches long and made of four strips of whalebone 0.1
inch wide, fastened together with what appear to be “waterknots.” Two
of these strips are of black whalebone, respectively 4½ and 9 inches
long; the other two are of light colored whalebone and 15½ and 11
inches long. The light colored end is made fast to the eye in the
small end of the hook as follows: The end is passed through the eye,
doubled back and passed through a single knot in the standing part,
and knotted round the latter with a similar knot (Fig. 265). This knot
is the one generally used in fastening a fishing line to the hook. The
other end is doubled in a short bight into which is becket-hitched one
end of a bit of sinew thread about 3 inches long, and the other end is
knotted into a notch at one end of the rod, as the whalebone would be
too stiff to tie securely to the stick. The rod is a roughly whittled
splinter of California redwood, 14½ inches long. The body of the lure
is a piece of walrus ivory 1½ inches long. Through a hole in the large
end of this is driven the barbless brass hook, with a broad thin plate
at one end bent up, flush with the convex side. When not in use the
line is reeled lengthwise on the rod, secured by a notch at each end
of the latter, and the hook stuck into the wood on one side of the
rod. The hook is wedged into the body of the lure with a bit of
whalebone. The other specimen, No. 89547, [1733] from the same
village, is almost exactly like this, but has a slightly shorter line,
made of three strips of bone, of which the lower two, as before, are
of light colored whalebone. The object of using this material is
probably to render the part of the line which is under water less
conspicuous, as we use leaders and casting lines of transparent
silkworm gut. The body of the lure is made of old brown walrus ivory.
These lures are 1 inch to 1½ inches long, and vary little in the shape
of the body which is usually made of walrus ivory, in most cases
darkened on the surface by age or charring, so that when carved into
shape it is parti-colored, black and white. The body is often
ornamented with small colored beads inlaid for eyes and along the back
(Fig. 266_a_, No. 56609 [153], from Utkiavwĭñ).
[Illustration: FIG. 264.--Tackle for shore fishing. 3/4]
[Illustration: FIG. 265.--Knot of line into hook.]
The hook is usually of the shape described but is sometimes simply a
slightly recurved spur about ½-inch long as in Fig. 266_b_ (No. 56610
[160], also from Utkiavwĭñ). It is usually of brass or copper, rarely
of iron. Two peculiar lures from Utkiavwĭñ, are No. 56705 [150_a_ and
150_b_]. The first, _a_, has a body of brass of the usual shape, and a
copper hook, and the other, _b_, has the body made of a strip of thin
brass to the back of which is fastened a lump of lead or pewter. The
hook appears to be made of a common copper tack. We were informed that
these lures were also used for catching small fish, trout, smelts, and
perhaps grayling in the rivers in summer. No. 89554 [950], Fig.
267_a_, from Utkiavwĭñ, is perhaps intended exclusively for this
purpose, as it is larger than the others, (1.9 inch long) and highly
ornamented with beads. Fig. 267_b_, No. 89783 [1007], is one of these
beaded lures (2½ inches long), with an iron hook, undoubtedly for
river fishing, as it belonged to the “inland” native, Ilû´bw’ga. It
differs slightly in shape from the others, having two eyes at the
small end into which is fastened a leader of sinew braid 3 inches
long. On this are strung four blue glass beads and one red one.
[Illustration: FIG. 266.--Small fishhooks. 3/4]
[Illustration: FIG. 267.--Hooks for river fishing. 1/2]
No. ----[N387] [151] Fig. 268, from Utkiavwĭñ, is a rod rigged for
fishing in the rivers. The rod is a roughly whittled stick of spruce
or pine, 27 inches long. One line is 43 and the other 36 inches long
and each is made of two strips of whalebone of which the lower is
light colored as usual. The shorter line carries a small plain ivory
lure of the common pattern, and the longer one a little flat barbless
hook of copper with a broad flat shank. This was probably scraped
bright and used without bait. The lines are reeled in the usual manner
on the rod, and the hooks caught into notches on the sides of it. The
small lures are called nĭ´ksĭñ.
[Illustration: FIG. 268.--Tackle for river fishing. 1/8]
[Footnote N387: Museum number effaced.]
When at the rivers in the autumn and early spring, they fish for
burbot with a line carrying a peculiar large hook called iɐkqlûñ,
which is baited with a piece of whitefish. There are two forms of this
hook, which is from 3 to 5¼ inches long. One form differs in size only
from the small nĭ´ksĭn, but is always of white ivory and not beaded
(Fig. 269, No. 89550 [780] from Utkiavwĭñ, which is 4½ inches long and
has a copper hook). The hook is of copper, brass or iron. The other
form, which is perhaps the commoner, has a narrow flat body, slightly
bent, and serrated on the edges to give a firm attachment to the bait.
This body is usually of antler, and has a copper or iron hook either
spur-shaped or of the common form as in Fig. 270, No. 89553 [764] from
Utkiavwĭñ, which has a body of walrus ivory 4 inches long and a copper
hook. Of late years, small cod hooks obtained from the ships have been
adapted to these bodies, as is seen in Fig. 271, No. 89552 [841] from
Utkiavwĭñ. The shank of the hook has been half imbedded in a
longitudinal groove on the flatter side of the body, with the bend of
the hook projecting about ¼ inch beyond the tip of the latter. The
ring of the hook has been bent open and the end sunk into the body.
The hook is held on by two lashings of sinew, one at each end of the
shank.
[Illustration: FIG. 269.--Burbot hook, 1st pattern. 1/3]
[Illustration: FIG. 270.--Burbot hook, 2d pattern. 1/3]
[Illustration: FIG. 271.--Burbot hook, made of cod hook. 1/2]
[Illustration: FIG. 272.--Burbot tackle, baited. 1/6]
No. 56594 [32] from Utkiavwĭñ is like the preceding, but has a larger
hook, which from the bend to the point is wrapped in a piece of deer
skin with the flesh side out, and wound with sinew having a tuft of
hair at the point of the hook. This is probably to hide the point when
the hook is baited. No. 56594 [167] from Utkiavwĭñ, has the hook
fastened to the back of the body instead of the flat side. The manner
in which these hooks are baited is shown in Fig. 272, which represents
a complete set of burbot tackle (No. 89546 [946]) brought in and sold
by some Utkiavwĭñ natives, just as they had been using it in the
autumn of 1882 at Kuaru or Kulugrua. A piece of whitefish, flesh and
skin, with the scales removed is wrapped round the hook so as to make
a club-shaped body 4½ inches long and is sewed up along one side with
cotton twine. The copper spur projects through the skin on the other
side. This hook would not hold the fish unless it were “gorged,” but
the voracious burbot always swallows its prey. In dressing these fish
for the table, whitefish of considerable size were frequently found in
them. The line is of whalebone like those already described but a
little stouter, 78 inches long, and made of seven pieces, all black.
The end of the line is fastened into an eye in the small end of a
rough club-shaped sinker of walrus ivory, 4¾ inches long. There is
another eye at the large end of the sinker, for the attachment of a
leader of double sinew braid 5½ inches long connecting the hook with
the sinker.
The reel, which serves also as a short rod, is of yellow pine 19½
inches long. When the line is reeled up, the hook is caught into the
wood on one side of the reel. No. 89545 [946] is a similar set of
baited tackle, bought from the same natives, differing from the
preceding only in proportions, having a longer line--9 feet and 6
inches--and a somewhat larger bait. We also procured two sets of
burbot tackle unbaited.
One of these (No. 56543 [33] from Utkiavwĭñ) has a whalebone line 14
feet long, and a roughly octahedral sinker of walrus ivory 3 inches
long and 1½ in diameter. The hook, which is joined to the sinker as
before by a leader of stout sinew braid, is of the second pattern,
with serrated edges, and a copper hook. The leader is neatly spliced
into this. The other, No. 56544 [187], also from Utkiavwĭñ, has no
sinker and a hook with a club-shaped body and iron spur. It was
probably put together for sale, as it is new. The sinkers, of which we
collected five, besides those already mentioned, are always about the
same weight and either club-shaped or roughly octahedral. They are
always of walrus ivory and usually carelessly made. Fig. 273
(No. 56577 [260]) represents one of these sinkers (kíbica), on which
there is some attempt at ornamentation. On the larger are two eyes and
the outline of a mouth like a shark’s, incised and filled in with
black refuse oil.
[Illustration: FIG. 273.--Ivory sinker. 1/2]
A similar line and reel are used for catching polar cod in the spring
and late winter through the ice at some distance from the shore. These
lines are 10 or 15 fathoms long, and provided with a heavy sinker of
ivory, copper, or rarely lead, to which are attached by whalebone
leaders of unequal length, two little jiggers like Fig. 274 (the
property of the writer, from Utkiavwĭñ). This is of white walrus
ivory, 2⅛ inches long and ⅜ in diameter at the largest part. The two
slender hooks are of copper and are secured by wedges of whalebone.
This makes a contrivance resembling the squid jigs used by our
fishermen. These jiggers are sometimes made wholly of copper, which is
scraped bright.
[Illustration: FIG. 274.--Ivory jigger for polar cod. 3/4]
This fishery begins with the return of the sun, about the 1st of
February, and continues when the ice is favorable until the season is
so far advanced that the ice has begun to melt and become rotten. The
fish are especially to be found in places where there is a good-sized
field of the season’s ice, 3 or 4 feet thick, inclosed by hummocks,
and they sometimes occur in very great numbers. In 1882 there was a
large field of this kind about 2 miles from the village and the
fishing was carried on with great success, but in 1883 the ice was so
much broken that the fish were very scarce. Some lads caught a few
early in the season, but the fishery was soon abandoned.
A hole about a foot in diameter is made through the ice with an ice
pick, and the fragments dipped out either with the long-handled
whalebone scoop, or the little dipper made of two pieces of antler
mounted on a handle about 2 feet long, which everybody carries in the
winter. The line is unreeled and let down through the hole till the
jigs hang about a foot from the bottom. The fisherman holds in his
left hand the dipper above mentioned, with which he keeps the hole
clear of the ice crystals, which form very quickly, and in his right
the reel which he jerks continually up and down. The fish, attracted
by the white “jiggers,” begin nosing around them, when the upward jerk
of the line hooks one of them in the under jaw or the belly. As soon
as the fisherman feels the fish, he catches a bight of the line with
the scoop in his left hand and draws it over to the left; then catches
the line below this with the reel and draws it over to the right, and
so on, thus reeling the line up in long hanks on these two sticks,
without touching the wet line with his fingers.
When the fish is brought to the surface of the ice, he is detached
from the barbless hook with a dextrous jerk, and almost instantly
freezes solid. The elastic whalebone line is thrown off the stick
without kinking and let down again through the hole. When fish are
plentiful, they are caught as fast as they can be hauled up, sometimes
one on each “jigger.” If the fisherman finds no fish at the first hole
he moves to another part of the field and tries again until he
succeeds in “striking a school.” The fish vary in abundance on
different days, being sometimes so plentiful that I have known two or
three children to catch a bushel in a few hours, while some days very
few are to be taken. In addition to the polar cod, a few sculpins are
also caught, and occasionally the two species of Lycodes (L. turnerii
and coccineus) which voracious fish sometimes seize the little polar
cod struggling on the “jigger” and are thus caught themselves. This
fishery is chiefly carried on by the women, children, and old men, who
go out in parties of five or six, though the hunters sometimes go
fishing when they have nothing else to do. There were generally thirty
or forty people out at the fishing-ground every day in 1882.
Jiggers of this pattern appear to be used at Pitlekaj, from
Nordendskiöld’s description[N388], but I have seen no account either
there or elsewhere of the peculiar method of reeling up the line such
as we saw at Point Barrow. Lines of whalebone are very common among
the Eskimo generally,[N389] and perhaps this material is preferable to
any other for fishing in this cold region, for not only does the
elastic whalebone prevent kinking, but the ice which forms instantly
on the wet line in winter does not adhere to it, but can easily be
shaken off. No. 56545 [410] is a line 51 feet and 10 inches long and
0.05 inch in diameter, made of human hair, neatly braided in a round
braid with four strands. This was called a fishing line, but was the
only one of the kind seen. Fishhooks of the kind described, with a
body of bone or ivory, which serves for a lure, armed with a spur or
bent hook of metal, without a barb, seem to be the prevailing type
amongst the Eskimo. In the region about Norton Sound (as shown by the
extensive collections of Mr. Nelson and others) this is often
converted into an elaborate lure by attaching pendants of beads, bits
of the red beak of the puffin, etc. Crantz mentions a similar custom
in Greenland of baiting a hook with beads.[N390]
[Footnote N388: Vega, vol. 2, p. 110.]
[Footnote N389: “Their Lines are made of Whalebones, cut very
small and thin, and at the End tacked together.” Egede, Greenland,
p. 107. See also, Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95; Dall, Alaska, p. 148; and
the Museum Collections which contain many whalebone lines from the
Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, collected by MacFarlane, and from
the whole western region, collected by Nelson.]
[Footnote N390: “Instead of a bait, they put on the hook a white
bone, a glass bead, or a bit of red cloth” (when fishing for
sculpins). History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 95.]
[Illustration: FIG. 275.--Section of whalebone net. 1/3]
_Nets (Kubra)._--The most important fishery at the rivers is carried
on by means of gill-nets, set under the ice, and visited every few
days. In these are taken large numbers of all three species of
whitefish (Coregonus kenicotti, C. nelsoni, and C. laurettæ.) The
collection contains three specimens of these nets, two of whalebone
and one of sinew. No. 56754 [147], Fig. 275, is a typical whalebone
net. It is long and shallow, 79 meshes long and 21 deep, made of fine
strips of whalebone fastened together as in the whalebone fishing
lines. Most of the whalebone is black, but a few light colored strips
are intermixed at random. The length of the mesh is 3¼ inches, and the
knot used in making them is the ordinary netting-knot. When not in use
the net is rolled up into a compact ball and tied up with a bit of
string. When set, this net is 21 feet 7 inches long and 3 feet 4
inches deep. The other whalebone net (No. 56753 [172], also from
Utkiavwĭñ), is similar to this, but slightly larger, being 87 meshes
(25 feet) long and 22 (3 feet 9 inches) deep. The length of mesh is 3½
inches. Fig. 276 (unit of web) is a net (No. 56752 [171] from the same
village) of the same mesh and depth, but 284 meshes (60 feet) long and
made of twisted sinew twine.
[Illustration: FIG. 276.--Mesh of sinew net. 1/2]
I had no opportunity of seeing the method of setting these nets under
the ice, but it is probably the same as that used in setting the seal
nets. When in camp at Pernyû in the summer, the natives set these nets
in the shoal water of Elson Bay, at right angles to the beach, with a
stake at each end of the net. They are set by a man in a kayak, and in
them are gilled considerable numbers of whitefish, two species of
salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and O. nerka) and an occasional trout
(Salvelinus malma). They take these nets east with them on their
summer expeditions, but we did not learn the method of using them at
this season. Perhaps they are sometimes used for seining on the beach,
as Thomas Simpson says that the Eskimo at Herschel Island (probably
Kûñmûd´lĭñ) sold his party “some fine salmon trout, taken in a seine
of whalebone, which they dragged ashore by means of several slender
poles spliced together to a great length.”[N391]
[Footnote N391: Narrative, p. 115.]
An Utkiavwĭñ native told us that he found trout (Salvelinus malma) so
plentiful at or near the mouth of the Colville, in 1882, that he fed
his dogs with them.
[Illustration: FIG. 277.--Fish trap. 1/23]
Fig. 277 is a peculiar net or fish-trap (No. 56755 [190]) from
Utkiavwĭñ, the only specimen of the kind seen. It is a conical,
wide-mouthed bag, 8 feet 4 inches long and 5½ feet wide at the mouth,
netted all in one piece of twisted sinew, with a 2¼-inch mesh. This
was brought over for sale at an early date, before we were well
acquainted with the natives, and we only learned that it was set
permanently for catching fish. Unfortunately, we never saw another
specimen, and through the press of other duties never happened to make
further inquiries about it. From its shape it would appear as if it
were meant to be set in a stream with the mouth towards the current.
This contrivance is called sápotĭn, which corresponds to the
Greenlandic saputit, a dam for catching fish.
From all accounts, the natives east of the Anderson River region were
ignorant of the use of the net before they made the acquaintance of
the whites,[N392] though they now use it in several places, as in
Greenland and Labrador. The earliest explorers on the northwest coast,
however, found both fish and seal nets in use, though, as I have
already mentioned, the seal net was spoken of at Point Barrow as a
comparatively recent invention. At the present day, nets are used all
along the coast from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers (see
MacFarlane’s Collection) as far south at least as the Yukon
delta.[N393] I have not been able to learn whether gill nets are used
in the delta of the Kuskoquim. Petroff[N394] mentions fish traps and
dip nets merely. That the natives of Kadiak formerly had no nets I
infer from Petroff’s statement[N395] that “of late they have begun to
use seines of whale sinew.” Nets are generally used on the Siberian
coast. We observed them ourselves at Plover Bay, and Nordenskiöld[N396]
describes the nets used at Pitlekaj, which are made of sinew thread.
It is almost certain that the American Eskimo learned the use of the
net from the Siberians, as they did the habit of smoking, since the
use of the gill net appears to have been limited to precisely the
same region as the Siberian form of tobacco pipe.[N397]
[Footnote N392: The Greenlanders used a sort of sieve or scoop
net, not seen at Point Barrow, for catching caplin (Mallotus
villosus). Egede, Greenland, p. 108; and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95.
John Davis, however, says of the Greenlanders in 1586, “They make
nets to take their fish of the finne of a whale.” Hakluyt’s
Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 782.]
[Footnote N393: Dall, Alaska, p. 147; and Petroff, Report, etc.,
p. 127.]
[Footnote N394: Op cit., p. 73.]
[Footnote N395: Op cit., p. 142.]
[Footnote N396: Vega, vol. 2, p. 109.]
[Footnote N397: See the writer’s paper in the American
Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-336.]
[Illustration: FIG. 278.--Fish spear. 1/8]
_Spears._--The only evidence which we have of the use of spears for
catching fish in this region is a single specimen, No. 89901 [1227],
Fig. 278, from Utkiavwĭñ, which was newly and rather carelessly made
for sale, but intended, as we were told, for spearing fish. This has a
roughly whittled shaft, of spruce, 21½ inches long, armed at one end
with three prongs. The middle prong is of whalebone, 4⅓ inches long,
inserted into the tip of the shaft, which is cut into a short neck and
whipped with sinew. The side prongs are also of bone, 9 inches long.
Through the tip of each is driven a sharp, slender slightly recurved
spur of bone, about 1½ inches long. Each prong is fastened to the
shaft with two small wooden treenails, and they are braced with a
figure-of-eight lashing of sinew through holes in the side prongs and
around the middle one. The side prongs are somewhat elastic, so that
when the spear is struck down on the back of a fish they spring apart
and allow the middle prong to pierce him, and then spring back so that
the spurs either catch in his sides or meet below his belly, precisely
on the principle of the “patent eel spear.” This implement is almost
identical with one in the National Museum from Hudson Bay, which
appears to be in general use among the eastern Eskimo.[N398] The name,
kăki´bua, is very nearly the same as that used by the eastern natives
(kākkĭe-wĕi, Parry, and kakívak, Kumlien). This spear is admirably
adapted for catching large fish in shallow rocky streams where a net
can not be used, or where they are caught by dams in tidal streams in
the manner described by Egede and Crantz. There is so little tide,
however, on the northwest coast, that this method of fishing can not
be practiced, and, as far as I know, there is no locality in the range
of the Point Barrow natives, a region of open shoal beaches, and
rivers free of rocks, where this spear could be used in which a net
would not serve the purpose much better. Taking into consideration the
scarcity of these spears and the general use of nets, I am inclined to
believe that this spear is an ancient weapon, formerly in general use,
but driven out of fashion by the introduction of nets.
[Footnote N398: Kumlien’s description (Contributions, p. 37,
Cumberland Gulf) would apply almost word for word to this spear,
and Captain Parry, (Second Voyage, p. 509) describes a very
similar one in use at Iglulik. The “Perch, headed with two
sharp-hooked Bones,” for spearing salmon--called in the Grenlandsk
Ordbog, kakiak, “en Lyster (med to eller tre Pigge)”--mentioned by
Egede (Greenland, p. 108) is probably the same thing, and a
similar spear is spoken of by Rae (Narrative, p. 172) as in use at
Repulse Bay. A similar weapon, described by Dr. Rink as “Mit einem
in brittischen Columbien vorkommenden identisch,” was found in
east Greenland (Deutsche Geographische Blätter, vol. 9, p. 234).
See the description of the spear found by Schwatka at Back’s Great
Fish River (Nimrod in the North, p. 139), also described by
Klutschak (Als Eskimo, etc., p. 120).]